14 Native Trees of Kentucky 



b. White Pine Finns strobus. 



White Pine is the largest of the conifers native to the eastern 

 half of North America and reaches its best development in asso- 

 ciation with the hard woods. Formerly, it covered vast tracks of 

 land in the Northern States and was the chief lumber tree of 

 commerce. Kentucky, at the present time, can claim a growth 

 of commercial value in but three counties, Lee, Wolfe and Mor- 

 gan. It has been generally planted over the State. White Pine 

 produces only from seed, and owing to the thinness of the bark, 

 saplings are seriously injured by fire. 



Horticulturally considered, it is one of the most stately and 

 attractive conifers. The pronounced habit of whorled branching, 

 so characteristic of this Pine, is due to the arrangement of buds 

 on the twigs. Each twig has a circle of five buds around a cen- 

 tral bud or leader.- This leader grows upward and the five buds 

 below develop into five radiate branches. The tips of the side 

 branches repeat the same manner of growth. 



Tree tall ; main trunk continuous, with horizontal, wide 

 spreading branches. 



Bark thick, fissured with brown scaly ridges. 



Leaves long, soft, flexible, in clusters of 5. 



Fruit cones, long, pendent, biennial, falling at maturity. 



